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Romney defends immigration stance in new book

As the GOP-led House gets ready to tackle rewrite of the nation's immigration laws, Mitt Romney's take on how he handled the explosive issue during the 2012 presidential campaign are instructive. In an

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As the GOP-led House gets ready to tackle a rewrite of the nation's immigration laws, Mitt Romney's take on how he handled the explosive issue during the 2012 presidential campaign is illuminating.

In an upcoming book by Dan Balz of The Washington Post, Romney expresses regret for how hard he attacked his Republican rivals — especially Texas Gov. Rick Perry — on their immigration stances.

The GOP presidential nominee, who mustered only 27% of the Hispanic vote last year, also said in Collision 2012: Obama vs. Romney and the Future of Elections in America that he didn't realize that his call for "self-deportation" of immigrants who are in the country illegally would be damaging. Romney told Balz that he believed his call for self-deportation was the "compassionate approach."

On his plan for self-deportation, Romney said, "I still don't know whether it's seen as being punitive in the Hispanic community. I mean, I know it is in the Anglo community ... I didn't recognize how negative and punitive that term would be seen by the voting community."

Romney's attacks on Perry, Newt Gingrich and their immigration stances led to fireworks at the GOP primary debates in 2011. Romney hammered Perry pretty hard for offering in-state tuition at Texas colleges for students regardless of their immigration status, calling it a "magnet" for people to come into the USA illegally.

He also slammed Gingrich for saying families who came to the U.S. illegally and who have been in the country for a long time should not be separated. When Romney started to trail Gingrich in polls ahead of the South Carolina primary, the book explains that his advisers want to run immigration-themed ads against Gingrich -- but Romney refused to "run an immigration campaign."

Balz also reports in Collision 2012 that Romney's campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, thought that the immigration attacks on Perry were "both damaging and unnecessary."

"Looking back, I think that's right," Romney told Balz. "I think that I was ineffective in being able to bring Hispanic voters into our circle and that had I been less pointed on that in the debates, I would have been more likely to get more Hispanic voters."

In the end, President Obama won 71% of the Latino vote last year — the most for a Democratic presidential candidate since Bill Clinton in 1996, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis. The 27% Hispanic support Romney received was the lowest for a GOP presidential nominee since Bob Dole in 1996.